Situational awareness concerns the knowledge and understanding of an environment critical complex decision making in areas such as aviation. Situational awareness involves the perception of elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future. At its core, situation awareness involves being aware of what is happening to understand how information, events, and actions will impact goals and objectives, both now and in the near future.
Head-up displays and synthetic vision systems have been developed to improve situational awareness in aviation. A head-up display (HUD) is a transparent display that presents data without obstructing a user's view of a scene external to the transparent display. A synthetic vision system typically utilizes a set of databases (including, but not limited to terrain, obstacle, geo-political, and/or hydrological databases) and an image generator to render a synthetic view on a display. Head-up displays and/or synthetic vision systems may display a Highway In The Sky (or Path-In-The-Sky), or a the intended flight plan of the aircraft graphically depicted three-dimensionally (typically in perspective view). Head-up displays and/or synthetic vision systems may include a flight path vector symbol, or an indicator that graphically depicts the trajectory of the aircraft at the current point in time.